The Tribes
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008I haven’t discussed Kenya yet for a couple of reasons. Namely, we had a bad experience there that colored my whole experience a bit. I need to press forward with all the good stuff about Kenya. When I went to Kenya I thought it would be fun to have a combination of tribes along. I thought it would be interesting to see Meru, Kikuyu, Masai and other peoples interacting. From last year’s visit, I knew tribalism is a major issue in Kenya. Pamela is Meru, our guide, Solomon, is Masai and our driver, Jessie, is Kikuyu. I also invited two friends, Albert and Ayanna, from Tanzania and from a completely different tribe as well as country. We saw a lot of Kenya in three weeks and the travel put us in contact with a number of other tribes. Since this was October and November and a national election was coming up in late December, a lot of political discussions took place and it was obvious that a person’s favorite for president was based on their tribal affiliation and the relationship that tribe has with the current president’s Kikuyu tribe. During our trip around Kenya, the more tribalism I witnessed, the more concerned for Kenya I became. It was a major reason that I found it difficult to picture myself living in Kenya. At no time, though, did I understand what we have since seen after the election. [read on]
vagabondrick